About All Travel

Among U.S. travelers, many countries in Southeast Asia have reputations for difficult travel, customs and wildly foreign food — how do half-gestated chicken embryos appeal? Malaysia is an exception. This multi-ethnic, multicultural country, split into west and east regions by the South China Sea, boasts excellent roads, a brand new airport and country-crossing trains. It offers three-star hotels with $40 rooms, and visas are not required for most passport holders. For people who are intrigued by Southeast Asia, but find the idea of traveling there daunting, go to Malaysia. For solo travelers with a backpack who want to avoid the crowds of rowdy teenagers in Thailand, go to Malaysia.

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Mongolia is a land of horses and herdsmen and one of the last great, undisturbed wilderness areas on earth. Among its 2.4 million people are some of the last truly nomadic pastoralists in the world but how long they will survive is questionable. About one-third of the scant population are concentrated in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, whereas the dwindling population of nomads, herdsmen with their millions of head of livestock, are spread thin throughout this nation. The people are well matched to the land they inhabit, they are tough, resilient, stoical by dint of necessity, but genuinely fun-loving, easy going and kind.

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